Christmas 2020

Merry Christmas, it's been quite a year.!

  I was so happy that Sam's Club had a card that would match the color scheme we chose for our family picture this year!  Thanks Sam's Club.

Even with the Pandemic, we decided if we all put on masks, and didn't stay too long, we could go visit our family on Christmas.  We loaded up our van with all the gifts and headed out.  Our first stop was the Hurst's house.  They had a wonderful Christmas!  Lani had a sleepover with them and got to watch them open their presents. So fun!

                                          

I heard about a fun tradition to take a treat to people who have to work on Christmas so we stopped by some gas stations and thanked them.  We also dropped some off to Steven and Lynn. Our next stop was Jamie's house. They had a great Christmas too!

We picked up Grandpa at Kevin and Pam's house and headed off  to Jordan's.

 Christmas is so magical with little kids around.

Savannah was so cute with the doll and cradle we gave her, but she especially liked the baby bottle.

Josh's family were so cozy in their matching jammies.  They had a great Christmas too!

Our last stop was to take dinner to Grandma Cline. Here's a cute picture of her in her Christmas colors.

.

Even though like Thanksgiving, it was dinner for two instead of the group we are used to, it was a really nice Christmas.  It gave us time to focus on the true meaning and the reason for the season.

New Lights for our basement

When we moved into our house, 26 years ago, the basement was already finished.  They had three, 8'x1' banks of fluorescent lights in the family room and one in Jordan's room.  Mike has always HATED the finish they put on the ceiling and wanted to redo that.  Well..... 26 years later we finally decided it was time.  Matt put in new can lights and Mike patched up the huge holes in the ceiling and retextured it. I even got to help.   It was a messy job, but it turned out great!

We love all the new lights! 

To get the wiring for our guest room, Matt had to make some holes in the wall, so it got a new paint job as well.  I also decided it was time to get rid of the valences in here and bought new drapes to hang. 

)

 

Aprons for Snowflakes

 About a week ago, my cute niece Morgan called to see if I would be able to make her girls aprons for Christmas.  They live in Tennessee, but were coming to Utah for Christmas.  I'm always looking for a fun project, so I said yes.  She sent me the link to the pattern that she liked, and I checked out my fabric stash and found some that I thought would be cute.  Grandmas Cline had given me the red and green that matched great.  I had enough to make Morgan one too. 

They were able to stop on their way home from the airport and pick them up. 

I was so happy that they fit and look ADORABLE in them.

She and Chase have a fancy machine that laser cuts wood.  She had posted some pictures of some of the things they had made.  They were awesome!!!  I asked them if I could trade aprons for some of the snowflakes that they made and they agreed.  They are soooooo pretty, I LOVE them!  

Thanks Morgan and Chase.

Cline COVID Christmas Party

Because of Covid, we are still not supposed to have parties or gatherings.  We were trying to figure out how to do a get together for the cousins to exchange Christmas presents.  Krista came up with a brilliant idea to have everyone dress warm, wear masks and meet in her back yard.  Jamie checked the weather forecast and found out that Monday the 20th, was going to be the nicest day, so we planned it for 4:30 that afternoon.  I did a hot chocolate bar with 2 kinds of hot chocolate, M&M's, Hugs, peppermint sticks, peanut butter chips, mint/chocolate bar chunks, chocolate chips and whipped cream

Everyone was able to come!

The Bigs

The Middles

The Littles (and Jamie) and the boys

The Parents

We all had so much fun being together!  Logan and Parker got remote control cars from their aunt Michelle the night before and they brought those to share with the boys.

 Soooooooo grateful for good weather so we could enjoy a get together!

Light the world 2020

 

For the past few years, I have LOVED the Light the World campaign the church has come up with.  They have fun ideas for each day of the month leading up to Christmas.  I haven't always been able to follow them exactly, but it's given me some fun ideas.  This year, day one fell on Giving Tuesday, and suggested you donate to your favorite charity. I had just been to visit Uncle Boyd the day before, on his 90th birthday.  I took him lunch and a tiny Birthday Bunt cake.

 His house is totally torn apart, as his son Randy is doing some major remodeling.  Jen texted me Tues morning to ask if we were going to draw names, or donate to a charity this year, like we did last year.  I sent out a text to my siblings, and Robynn suggested we donate to Uncle Boyd to help with his home repairs.  Everyone loved the suggestion, and immediately sent money to my Venmo account to give to him.  We had $315!  I remembered that a couple of my kids were looking for someone to help this Christmas, so I sent a text to them, and within a few minutes, we had another $220.  Holy cow!  I told my siblings that we now had over $500 to give to him and how excited I was.  They all said maybe their kids would like to donate, so they invited them and we ended up with $750 that I deposited in his account. 

 

What a generous family we have!!!  

Only two days later, Boyd got a call, that Deanne, who has been in a care center since her stroke last summer, was near death.  They have hardly been able to visit her because of COVID, but because she was so close to dying, they would let them spend her last few hours together.  Tina picked him up and Randy joined them, where they were able to spend time telling her goodbye. She passed away the next day, on December 4, the same day Grandpa Birks passed away 38 years before.

She was one of those gals who always focused on the good, she laughed easily and often.  I will miss her laugh.  She didn't have an easy life, but she didn't dwell on the hardships.  

She was a sweet lady and she will be missed by us all.

A Quarantined Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving this year was definitely different!  Instead of having 25 people, like usual, we set a table for two.  They had advised us to only eat Thanksgiving dinner with those in your own home this year.

Since Josh and Merijane are both nurses, and can't really miss work at this crazy time, they did the same thing and only had their little family, they had Chicken Cordon Bleu.  YUM!

Krista and Jordan's family have both been quarantining pretty well, so they felt comfortable being together.  Lani has been quarantining with Krista's family, so she came too..

Jordan's family stopped by on their way home from Krista's to bring us a piece of Jamie's Delicious Salted Caramel Apple Pecan pie, and one of her amazing Chocolate Cream Pie.  Yum!!!

Savannah was fascinated with my Christmas Decorations! 

Jamie's family decided to take a little mini vacation, and went to Salt Lake and stayed at

 Little America Hotel for a couple of nights.  They had Thanksgiving Dinner at Rodizio Grill. 

They had fun goofing around downtown.

With Covid in full swing, we just bought Cheez-Its to deliver to our Primary kids and 

I made Chex Muddy Buddies for our delivery to our Family.  

Here's hoping that next Thanksgiving we can all be TOGETHER!!!

A wedding, a shower, cheeseball turkeys, #givethanks

Nov. 19th was the day Charlie and Jen had planned for their wedding in the Sacramento Temple.  Just a week before that day, they found out the temple would be closing due to the Coronavirus.  Luckily, they were able to schedule the Oakland Temple, about 2 hours away, for Nov. 20th.  On the evening of the 16th, they found out that Oakland Temple would be closing on the 17th, but they had an appointment open at 7:30 that night. (17th) They rearranged plans, and were able to make it work.

   

Luckily, Robynn and Dick had left a few days earlier from Dallas, and planned to be to Sacramento on the 17th to help them move into their new house.  Tatia was able to make arrangements to be their too,  (she lives about 5 1/2 hours away) but the rest of the siblings lived too far away to change plans and make it in time.  It was a beautiful wedding, and again, it's good to know that important things still happen even with the stupid Coronavirus!

A few months ago, I found out that this cute gal in our ward was having a baby boy.  Her family just moved into our ward before the Coronavirus hit, so no one got to know them very well.  Our ward is so good to do showers for new babies, (we don't have very many since we are an older ward). I tried to think how we could do one, since we can't gather together for one.  I thought it would be fun to do a shower in a box.  I sent an invitation via email to the sisters in our ward, inviting them to join in if they would like.  I think we had 15 ladies bring by a gift that we added to the box.  I asked Robynn to help me with a poem to put on the box, and as usual, she came up with something just perfect! 

I got cups, plates napkins and a little matching centerpiece, brownies, cookies, ice cream and 2 friends who helped me, added the balloons and sparkling cider.  We dropped it on their doorstep and rang the doorbell.  Before we could make our getaway, they caught us.  

 

Mikayla sent me this sweet note to share with everyone who helped make it such a fun time.

Thank You!!!  We sure appreciate all the effort it took to organize this.  We are so grateful for everything we received.  It was so fitting to watch President Nelson's message today, and to receive this today made it extra special!  We are so grateful to all the ladies who contributed, especially those we don't personally know.  I wish we could have had a party and could give hugs to all to see how grateful we are for all they've done and given to us.  #givethanks Mikayla

 I loved listening to President Nelson's message of hope and healing.  He encouraged us to do two things.  1. Flood Social Media with messages of gratitude and put #givethanks                                                     2. Be more earnest in our prayers  It's been soooo fun to see what everyone is grateful for.

A few weeks ago, I saw a picture of a turkey cheeseball on facebook and took a screenshot of it. 

 I thought it was so cute and would be fun to do for my ministering families. 

 I think mine turned out just about as cute as the original.

  I thought it would be fun to make "kits" and take them to my grandkids so they could make them.  

 

I had just finished making them when it was time to pick Jamie up from the airport.  I gave him the kit to take to his kids, and forgot to ask him to take a picture, so no picture of his kids, and Hailey was eating dinner when the girls made theirs. Thankfully, it was a beautiful day yesterday, so we could make them outside with Josh and Jordan's family!  It's hard to believe how big this little gal is getting.  She LOVES to stand up and does it all the time from the middle of the floor.  

She doesn't have to pull herself up to anything. She's pretty amazing!